IMMIGRANT

HIGHLY-SKILLED WORKER INITIATIVESImplementation and Model ProgramsMore than half of the seven million high-skilled immigrants in the U.S. were trained abroad and can face commonbarriers to their integration into the U.S. economy, including non-recognition of foreign academic credentials, limitedEnglish proficiency, and lacking cultural workplace and job search skills necessary to obtain employment.Credentialing and LicensingForeign-Trained ProfessionalsNo nationally established standards for assessing educational credentials obtained abroad have been establishedin the U.S. Much of that responsibility lies with the state and local government, along with private groups andprofessional associations. 11 Internationally trained job candidates must find their own ways to prove that their courseworkor skills are valid, and there is a lack of information on services available to help immigrant professionals.A number of organizations are working to address this issue. With 40 years of experience, World EducationServices (WES) is the premiere evaluator of foreign credentials, verifying the authenticity of documents, andproviding a U.S-equivalency for foreign degrees, diplomas, or studies. 12 WES provides more than 100,000evaluations each year that are widely accepted by academic institutions, employers, licensing and certificationboards, and government agencies in the U.S. and Canada. WES’s Global Talent Bridge provides a number of onlineresources, webinars, and other tools to service individual immigrants, refugees, and internationals, as well ascommunity partners, such as those designing and implementing local immigrant economic development initiatives.Upwardly Global provides a series of online professional licensingguides to help job seekers understand the legal steps required to earna state professional license or credential to return to the full practiceof their regulated profession. 13 These guides are written to makethe statutes and regulations more easily understood. State-specificlicensing information has been developed by Upwardly Global forten or more common professions in California, Illinois, Michigan,and New York, with a New Hampshire guide for health careprofessions. 14 The Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians(Welcoming Center) has developed detailed career guides for fourhigh-growth industries in Pennsylvania (accountant, mechanical engineer,systems analyst, and teacher). Each guide outlines the processWELCOMING AMERICA | GUIDE TO IMMIGRANT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT | CHAPTER 645.Internationally trained jobcandidates must find their own waysto prove that their coursework orskills are valid, and there is a lackof information on services availableto help immigrant professionals.for becoming a certified professional and provides information about various types of jobs within each field, regionalemployers who hire these professionals, salary ranges, and employment resources. 15Additional licensing and credentialing tools are available online for highly-skilled immigrant job seekers from anyregion of the world. These resources can be promoted by any local immigrant economic development initiative:• Upwardly Global and the Welcome Back Initiative 16 have collaborated on developing a series of onlinehealthcare trainings targeted for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and dentists, which are now available for usersto complete online at their own pace.11 Peter Creticos, Michael Fix, Jeanne Batalova, Amy Beeler, and Rob Paral, “Employing Foreign-Educated Immigrants,”workandeconomy.org. Institute for Work and the Economy, 2007, http://www.workandeconomy.org/Employing%20Internationally%20Educated%Final.pdf.12 See World Education Services, https://www.wes.org/.13 See Upwardly Global, http://www.upwardlyglobal.org/search?SearchableText=online+licensing+guides.14 Ibid, www.upwardlyglobal.org/job-seekers/american-licensed-professions. Upwardly Global does have offices open in Chicago, Detroit,New York, San Francisco, and Silver Spring, Maryland.15 See Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians, http://welcomingcenter.org/publications/publication-downloads.16 See Welcome Back Initiative, http://www.welcomebackinitiative.org/wb/index.html.